President Clinton's Remarks on Senate Passage of Colombia Aid Package, June 22, 2000

President Clinton's Remarks on Senate Passage of Colombia Aid Package, June 22, 2000

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
June 22, 2000

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
UPON DEPARTURE

The South Portico

10:00 A.M. EDT

Q: Sir, on Colombia, after the Senate's endorsement last night of the appropriation, are you optimistic that you will get the funding for Operation Colombia before losing so much ground it will be impossible to make it back up?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first, I'd like to compliment the Senate and the bipartisan vote. I'm grateful for it. As you know, there were some differences in the Senate bill and the House bill, first of all, a not insubstantial financial difference -- I think about $300 million over two years -- and then some differences in how the money would be allocated. But I'm encouraged that we could maybe get the differences between the Senate proposal and the House proposal worked out.

The second part of your question is really a question that neither I nor anyone else is qualified to answer -- that is, it requires conjecture. I think as I've said all along, sooner is better than later. The quicker we can reach agreement and show that the United States is committed to democracy and to fighting the drug wars in Colombia and to strengthening the oldest democracy in Latin America, the better off we're going to be.

The quicker we do it, the quicker the Colombians will be able to get Europeans and others who are very sympathetic with them to come in and do their part; the more appealing it will be for the international financial institutions.

We haven't had a chance to talk about this much because there are so many other things going on. But those people, they're in the fight of their lives for their very way of life, with the combined pressure of a guerrilla war that's been going on for decades and the rise of the narco traffickers over the last two decades.

I don't think the average American can imagine what it would be like to live in a country where a third of the country, any given day, may be in the hands of someone that is an enemy, an adversary of the nation-state. I don't think we can even imagine what that would be like. Just, you know, driving through Washington, D.C., and you've got a one-in-three chance of being in a neighborhood that your government and the law of the land doesn't prevail in. This is a huge, huge issue. And again, I'm grateful to the Senate and I'm grateful it was done on such a bipartisan basis, and we just need to get it done as quickly as possible.

As of June 26, 2000, this document was also available online at http://usinfo.state.gov/admin/011/lef501.htm